


Coin

by ishafel



Category: 7th Heaven
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-11
Updated: 2011-03-11
Packaged: 2017-10-16 21:05:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/169344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ishafel/pseuds/ishafel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The story of Cain and Abel.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coin

The problem with being a twin, even a fraternal twin, is that sometimes you and your brother are mixed up at birth and all your life you bear the wrong names, live the wrong destinies. This is what happened to Sam and David Camden; when they were three days old their parents lost track of which was which and ended by flipping a coin. After that Sam was David and David was Sam. They knew something was wrong, of course, but early on they couldn't find the words to say so; by the time they could talk they no longer cared to explain.

David should have been the strong one, the one in control, just like David in the Bible. But instead it was Sam who was the leader and David was happy to be allowed to swim in his wake. Jesus loved them both equally but their parents secretly preferred Sam; their father felt that perhaps David's weakness was a judgment of some kind and would have liked to ignore him or leave him in a supermarket parking lot. David somehow came in for the lion's share of the blame (just like the early Christians who were fed to the lions) no matter what went wrong, and despite the fact that anything that went wrong was generally Sam's fault.

It was hard to hate Sam when he couldn't help his nature: couldn't help being creative like their father and adventurous like their mother. It was hard to hate him when he was David's other half. But David did hate him, and it was his hate that killed Sam. Jesus was punishing him, the way Jesus had punished their sister Mary a long time ago. Just like Mary, David deserved to be thrown out of their family, lock him up and throw away the key, no more bad jealous David. Envy was one of the seven deadly sins just like hate and lust and greed and premarital sex, David was not smart (not smart like Sam) but he knew that much.

So when David envied Sam too much, Jesus had to take him away to Heaven to be perfect and sit at the right hand of the father. That was what his own father had said, and he must be right, because he talked to God directly. It was Jesus who had killed Sam, but it was also David, because David was the dumb one. He should have been the one to forget to wear his bike helmet not Sammy, never Sammy his mom had screamed, Sammy is the smart one he always does what I tell him to.

Once Sam was gone David had to be smart for both of them but not just smart also pious and prayerful and humble. He had to pray to God (but never to Mary like Robbie Palmer had before he went away because being a Catholic was worse than being a devil-worshipping Jew it was like spitting on the baby Jesus.) He had to pray that Sam was in heaven and that he would forgive David for being jealous of him and keep David from going to hell even though that was no more than David deserved. At the reception in the backyard after Sam's funeral David heard their father telling the stupid story about flipping the coin and he wanted to tell him shut up, shut up, shut up, but he didn't say it even under his breath, even though it was what Sam would have done.


End file.
